David Bowie's U.S. Music Sales Increase More Than 5,000 Percent in Wake of Death

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David Bowie

Naturally, 'Blackstar' amounted to significant portion of Bowie’s sales for the week — however, even without the set, his catalog of earlier albums still saw a huge lift.

In the wake of Davie Bowie’s death on Jan. 10, U.S. sales of the late icon’s music catalog increased by over 5,000 percent in the week ending Jan. 14.

According to Nielsen Music, Bowie’s combined album and song sales for the week rose by 5,019 percent to 682,000. Of that, pure album sales represented 308,000 (up 8,440 percent), while song downloads comprised 375,000 (up 3,752 percent).

Bowie died of cancer two days after releasing his latest album, Blackstar.

The new album totaled 174,000 of Bowie’s sales in the newest tracking week — his largest sales week for an album since Nielsen Music began electronically tracking point-of-sale music purchases in 1991. It debuted at No. 1 on a host of Billboard charts, including Top Album Sales and the Billboard 200.

Naturally, Blackstar amounted to a significant portion of Bowie’s sales for the week. However, even without the set, his catalog of earlier albums still saw a huge lift of 3,616 percent.

His largest-selling albums, after Blackstar, were: Best of Bowie (51,000; up 6,698 percent), The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (13,000; up 3,117 percent), Hunky Dory (7,000; up 4,445 percent), Nothing Has Changed (6,000; up 2,641 percent) and Let’s Dance (4,000; up 4,911 percent).